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The industrial revolution was the second most experienced revolution in man’s history. The Industrial Revolution began in England in the 18th. The transition was characterized by the use of machines that replaced human labor. Also, a source of energy such as steam and water power was increasingly used.
Industrially, the textile industry was the first one in the Industrial Revolution. It experienced massive employment, out and high capital invested. Similarly, it used modern production methods. The spinning jerry was invented for spinning wool or cotton. This was followed by the steam engine which was to produce power to run machines. The industrial revolution is the transition of the means of production from locally produced ones to the use of machines in the industries that see massive production of goods. Here, machines are used to a larger extent in place of human labor.
The industrial revolution can be understood with theories. They are capitalism, marxism.
Capitalism is an economic system that encourages the use of individual money to invest in business. It’s this money that is referred to as ‘capital’ in capitalism, everything is privatized and the private entities own the factors of production which include entrepreneurship capital, goods, natural resources, and labor.
Capitalism is closely related to Laisses-Faire. They complement each other. They came up at almost the same period in the 1700s. It was both political and economic. Leissez-faire was a policy that was adopted by the economy owners who pushed the government to minimize interference with individuals or society’s economic affairs.
Capitalism was put forward by Adams Smith who is a renowned economist, the father of capitalism. In his book, he explains that there will be provision of free markets to regulate themselves using competition, self-interest, and supply demand. This theory supports individual ownership of property on the means of production subjects the society to an absolute growth. Therefore, the spread of this philosophy in Britain motivated the rich merchants in the society, and feudal lords to invest in the commercial industry. The favorable conditions such as the availability of capital, raw materials, and energy sources among others were a leeway to venture into factories from the cottage industries.
However, with capitalism, it was unavoidable to broaden the gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. There was a need of laborers. Even though machines replaced human labor, it wasn’t a full transition. Manpower was essential to perform manual work in the factories. Work at the factories was characterized by poor working conditions, low wages
The other theory is the Marxism theory of the industrial revolution. Marxism was a philosophy that was championed by the philosopher Karl Marx. Karl opposes the theory of capitalism, and together with Fredrich Engels, he advocates for communism and socialism. In their work, they bring out the theory of class struggle that eventually leads to revolution. This is because interpersonal forces bring about conflicts among the social classes; which are made up of members who share common features than the other classes.
In his work, Marx blamed the capitalist system for causing its failure and destruction. The revolution that will be caused by the proletariat working class will be led by a leader called the leader, who will understand the class structure of society and unite the working class. He will then raise awareness and class consciousness. Then after a successful revolution, capitalism will be replaced by socialism and later communism hence eliminating social classes and struggles.
Nevertheless, the Marxist tradition’s view of society faced a couple of criticisms; Firstly, He placed society into two classes i.e. bourgeoisie and proletariat. However, today’s society is more complex with the high class, middle class, and low class. Now, the middle class in the later society has stocks and shares that have been invested in big businesses. The majority of them own their home which can be turned into an economic asset hence capital.
Secondly, in today’s society, capitalism is growing less and lesser in terms of exploitation. For instance, some employers believe that paying workers good wages will motivate them to work and increase the demand for goods. In this way, laborers are less exploited. Similarly, the involvement of the government through labor organizations or unions has seen the disintegration of exploitation and much inequality. This is to ensure that the evils of capitalism will be done away with
Generally, Marx’s general weakness is unreal (does not work in the real world). This is because while trying to put forward his argument, he didn’t take into account the greediness and selfishness of human beings. Normally, in the real world, people will work hard to accumulate more wealth but Marx proposes people just work and forgo the ability to get rich from the efforts.
Marxism, theory was and is the driving force towards the Industrial Revolution. In Britain, for instance, the feudal lords rich and land owners took control and managed the industrial economy. Since they had earlier enjoyed immense benefits from the agrarian revolution, it was easier for them to invest in industries for capital, and raw materials labor among others was readily available. On the other hand, the poor workers who used to offer labor on the farms continued to do so but industries and exploitation continued and advanced for it saw the involvement of women and children working under strict, harsh conditions.
The industrial revolution found its way into Africa which was part of it either directly or indirectly. It was unavoidable. It impacted Africa and other developing countries both positively and negatively. For example;
All the European countries turned to Africa for raw materials and mineral resources. Since this revolution had started in Europe, they had exhausted all the materials needed to feed their industries. Now that Africa had not yet industrially progressed, resources were abundant for the European industries.
The coming of the Europeans to fetch raw materials subjected Africans to able t poverty. Instead of working to develop themselves financially, they were forced to offer cheap labor to the European farms as well as in their home-based industries. Therefore, many Africans ended up in Europe, for their labor was cheaper and readily available.
The indigenous economic activities of Africans were disrupted for they were forced to shift from practicing subsistence farming to cash crop farming. Furthermore, their restriction was to ensure that labor was readily available whenever needed.
Socially, there was a disruption of the traditional African setup of families. With the introduction of taxes which were paid inform of money, Africans had to work in European farms to acquire the money to pay the taxes. As a result, many of them ended up migrating to urban centers seeking jobs.
It brought about the disarticulation in the provision of social amenities. This is because most of the social amenities provided by the colonial government were concentrated at a certain place. Therefore, this attracted the migration of people from the rural areas to the urban to seek the amenities that could only be found in the urban centers. The impacts are still felt up to date for people are struggling for good amenities hence the problems of urbanization.
On the same note, the industrial revolution is the cause of the poor infrastructure in Africa and the developing countries. When the Europeans came to acquire raw materials, they did not set up a comprehensive transport system. The networks developed were to link different towns and rural areas for purposes of effective communication and development. The colonial government built a transport system or routes that enabled them to acquire raw materials easily from their sources or base. They were to transport them to the destination point where they would be transported abroad. This is an elaborate explanation for the development of the railway lines as well as the Sea ports. Moreover, the Europeans did not make any effort to develop good roads that would necessitate the interaction of the locals. As a result, the distortion of infrastructure did not effect the development of agriculture and economic integration in different parts of Africa.
It brought about the emergency and institutionalization of class and class struggle which was in the socio-economic and political life of people. The classes they emerged from were the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, and the peasants. The colonialists used the bourgey class in Africa to siphon the economy. This explains the existence of harmonies between the Africans and the colonial governments. Perhaps that’s why during the political independence some Africans were allowed to lead. The leaders who took after colonial masters maintained the same policies that were instilled by the colonial masters. That’s perhaps why the economic and Political administration of many African states echoes those of the colonialists.
There was a disarticulation of the African economy which was a result of colonialism. The patterns of economic development changed in different ways. There was disarticulation in the production of goods, markets, traders as well as the transport systems. The Industrial Revolution introduced the pattern of division of labor which was disadvantageous to Africans. The labor was assigned to produce raw materials for their home industries whereby Africans were not allowed to manufacture anything. They were only allowed to build industries that would facilitate in the processing of raw materials for export. The raw materials were always bought at low prices and sold at an expense price.
Industrialization saw the formation and emergency of trade labour unions. A labor union is made up of a group of people with the same job and they come together to fight for their working conditions to be improved. All over the globe and historically, labor unions have proved to play a peculiar importance in the economy by improving the relationship between workers and owners.
Similarly, the agrarian revolution ensured adequate food production that was industrially processed. The availability of food saw a population increase. However, the poverty situation among the working class subjected them to poor living conditions in the cities, hence, the population growth combined with migration impacted the way of life in industrial towns. The trend continues up to date whereby there is a massive population in urban areas compared to rural ones.
This revolution, led to the invention of several machines among them being the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, and the water frame, the spinning mule. These inventions laid the basis for industrial growth. The machines and techniques they developed helped to improve production. There was quick and efficient mass production of goods.
Its negative consequences include the pollution of the environment. This was inevitable with industries in society. This brought about drastic changes. At that time, coal was the main and universal source of fuel and energy to power factories and heat homes. Soot, the byproduct affects the fresh air hence air pollution. The city buildings were changing their color to black with time. This had serious health problems for the residents of the growing urbanization.
The industrial revolution saw Africa being subjected to scramble and partitioning among the European nations. Politically, the industrial revolution was unfair to African countries. The rapid growth of industries meant a rise in demand for raw materials to feed these industries. Similarly, there was a need for a market of surplus industrial products. In that case, European nations have to find alternative places that could satisfy the above quest. It was more profitable to invest the surplus capital accumulated by the industrial bourgeoisie and the raw materials such as cotton, copper, cocoa, and ivory e.t.c, Were relatively cheap, abundant, and had little competition. The overproduction of goods meant the need for markets for their surplus products since their markets were becoming flaccid. This in turn was a way of remarkable improvements in the expansion of international trade.
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